Antonio Canova Venus Painting by Paul Meijering

About "Antonio Canova Venus Painting"

by Paul Meijering

About the artwork

Realistic acrylic painting of the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova with his sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix, all painted by the Dutch fine artist Paul Meijering - the original painting is 90 x 90 cm and part of a permanent collection.

Antonio Canova (Possagno, 1 November 1757 - Venice, 13 October 1822) was an Italian sculptor and painter.

He was a pupil of Toretti (Il Giovane) in Venice, opening his own studio in 1773. He died in 1822 and is buried in his own version of the Pantheon. Canova's work is neoclassical, a style that looked closely at the classics. Canova tried to depict not so much reality as an ideal. Through his nude studies, Canova wanted to return to the simplicity of nature. His sculptures are velvety and sensitive.

Canova was born in 1757 in Possagno near Venice. He lost his parents at a young age and was raised by his grandparents. His whole family was artistic. Canova started out as a painter. He also did nude studies, to study the human body. He also worked with light and dark in his sketches. When he was 16, he got his first sculpture commission, Orpheus and Eurydice. When he was 18, he got his own studio. He lived in Rome for a long time. In 1802, he was brought to Paris by Napoleon to depict Napoleon. In 1815, Pope Pius VII sent him to the Paris Louvre to claim the Vatican art looted by Napoleon in fulfilment of the Treaty of Paris (1815). Indeed, the Vatican works of art had meanwhile been housed in the collection assembled by Vivant Denon at the Musée Napoleon. In 1819, he designed a temple inspired by the Pantheon as a gift to his native village, and it was interred there after his death in 1822.